School of Science and Technology

Role

Research Fellow in user Interface Design and Development.

Working on the Innovation for Invention project (II-LA-0716-20002) developing human-computer interfaces for both patients and medical practitioners in order to improve the sedation process for local anaesthetic, in-theatre operations.

Career overview

Oct 2015 – Aug 2017.

Research Associate in Human Factors at the University of Nottingham.

Research areas

Current Research:

Working on the Innovation for Invention project (II-LA-0716-20002) developing human-computer interfaces for both patients and medical practitioners in order to improve the sedation process for local anaesthetic, in-theatre operations.

Previous research:

Research associate at University of Nottingham – part of the European Framework 7 project i-Mars (www.i-mars.eu). The broad aim of the i-Mars project was to develop tools and 3D models of the Martian surface through the co-registration of NASA and ESA mission data dating from the Viking missions of the 1970’s to the present day, giving a much more comprehensive interpretation of the geomorphological and climatic processes that have taken and do take place.

Dr. Sprinks’ involvement concentrated on the development of a citizen science platform that allows the online public to analyse change on the surface of Mars. The aim was to achieve a better understanding of how task design, interface design, data presentation techniques and communication tools can be utilised to ensure the best possible user experience whilst ensuring the data produced is still scientifically robust.

WebGIS Developer on the European Framework 7 project PRoViDE. PRoViDE (Planetary Robotics Vision Data Exploitation) assembled a major portion of the imaging data gathered so far from vehicles and probes on planetary surfaces into a unique database, bringing them into a spatial context and providing access to a complete set of 3D vision products. The 3D vision processing complemented a front-end from a multi-resolution visualisation engine that combines various levels of detail to realise a seamless and immersive real-time access to dynamically rendered 3D representations of the captured scenes.

WebGIS Developer on the European Framework 7 project PRoVisG. The aim of PRoVisG was to build a unified European framework for Robotic Vision Ground Processing. State-of-the-art computer vision technology was collected inside and outside Europe to better exploit the image data gathered during future robotic space missions to the Moon and the Planets.

External activity

MarsCAPE (https://marscape.wordpress.com). An engaging and informative display that communicates key aspects of the Martian landscape to the public, including the nature and scale of landscape forms, using a unique combination of physical landscape models and synchronised 3D perspective views. It combines the proven power of physical relief models for providing overviews of landscape and discerning subtler spatial forms and relationships, with first person game-like perspectives on the ground. By synchronising the two, for example, the path across the landscape of a ‘rover- like’ vehicle can be followed whilst seeing the ‘on-the-ground’ perspective through a coupled digital display.

STEM Ambassador. Offering school and outreach sessions involving the MarsCAPE model and the Zooniverse citizen science platform, that has classes designed for different key stages adapted for the curriculum of many different STEM subjects (www.zooniverse.org).

Sponsors and collaborators

Current Innovation 4 Invention project:

i-Mars European Framework 7 project:

University of Nottingham, Mullard Space Science Laboratory - University College London, Freie Universität Berlin, The German Aerospace Center (DLR), École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, University of Seoul.